Issue - meetings

Purpose of the item: To provide the Adults and Health Select Committee with a detailed report on the General Practice Integrated Mental Health Service (GPIMHS).

Witnesses:

Georgina Foulds, Associate Director for Primary and Community Transformation, Surrey and Borders Partnership

Rebecca Isherwood-Smith, Interim Mental Health Programme Lead, Surrey Heartlands

Dr David Kirkpatrick, Clinical/Managerial Lead (Integrating Primary and Mental Health Care), Surrey and Borders Partnership

Dr Maria Nyekiova, GP Partner and Mental Health Lead for COCO Primary Care Network

Paris Wilson, GPIMHS Service User

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    The Clinical/Managerial Lead introduced the report, emphasising the importance of configuring mental health services in a way that was not harmful itself to service users’ mental health (for example, a high threshold for access to the service could cause deterioration of the mental health of someone who has just failed to meet the threshold). The introduction of the General Practice Integrated Mental Health Service (GPIMHS) aimed to help resolve this. The quality of service users’ experience of accessing care was as important as the quality of the care that they were accessing. Social determinants of mental health could not be resolved by the mental health foundation trust alone; this must also involve the community. Surrey was fortunate to have a high standard of mental health services in general and strong links between partners, including the voluntary sector and primary care.

2.    The Clinical/Managerial Lead continued to explain that it was important to have good mental health services in place in GP surgeries so that mental health issues could be recognised at the first point of contact and in order to ensure primary care staff felt supported with the skills to provide mental health support. GPIMHS would allow residents to go to a GP surgery and quickly have access to a mental health professional or Community Connector without having to reach a high threshold. GPIMHS was part of a vision for a ‘no wrong door’ system; in other words, the idea that residents would be able to access consistently high-quality mental health services by presenting initially anywhere in the system. The Clinical/Managerial Lead showed a case study, which illustrated the experience of a GPIMHS service user who was able to access help quickly and felt well-informed. Also, carers were an important part of mental health services, and were often not taken into account as much as they should be. Whether the service user had a carer or was a carer – including a young carer in particular – would always be taken into account as part of GPIMHS.

3.    The GP Partner and Mental Health Lead for the COCO Primary Care Network (PCN) stated that prior to GPIMHS, many patients would experience a disconnect between the criteria for different services, meaning they would become stuck in a cycle and struggle to access the support they needed. GPIMHS, on the other hand, provided a useful bridge between primary care, secondary care and the community, and would hopefully resolve this disconnect. GPIMHS allowed for communication between multiple agencies – including, for example, substance abuse services and housing services – and could therefore be tailored to service users’ individual needs.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16